Three Bloods- Second Year
by Obssessedwithfanfiction
Summary: So Sam, James, Lydjah, Jayna, Scorpius, Albus, Lien and Molly have made it through their first year together. But with a dark plot thickening, strange tests beckoning and secrets finally being uncovered will the team rise up or break apart?
1. Chapter One

**AN: Happy Christmas Eve Eve? I was supposed to wait and give this as some kind of Christmas gift but I got a little too excited.**

**A couple of things;**

**1) If you haven't read ****_Three Bloods- First Year _****this book will make little sense to you.**

**2) I will not be updating this as quickly as I did with ****_TBFY _****because unfortunately I will have less time because of school and various other commitments from now on but I promise I will still update ****_at least _****once a month.**

**3) I have quite run out of things that I prefer reviews to so I figure I'll pose questions instead as I know writing; 'please review!' doesn't actually help anyone figure out how to phrase a review. This ****does not**** mean you have to answer the question in your review, just that it's a... prompt?**

**4) Question for this one then; anyone got any ships for this series yet? (I think you'll find the chapter title quite apt to the question.) Obviously I can neither confirm nor deny any ideas, but I have a good idea of where everyone's relationships are going and I want to know if anyone has picked up on them. Also any out-of-the-box ships would be hilarious to read :).**

**5) Have a great Christmas/break from school/work if you don't celebrate Christmas. If you don't have a break from school/work then just have a great week :) (you poor soul).**

Chapter One  
>Of Two Friends and Two Hot Gryffindors<p>

Two towns over from Erith, was the village of Alpra. In the village of Alpra, as it is with most villages, there was quite a few houses, a park, a corner-shop of some sort and that huge main road that every child is warned about by their parents until they are so terrified they make a special effort to avoid crossing it at all costs, until they reach high school when they suddenly decide it's the best place to do something stupid.

Right by the main road, there were two rows of houses. On one side of the road there was also the park, and it was the next house on the left from the park where a particular family of four lived.

They'd moved there when their daughter was six, from the south (the farmer part of the south as opposed to the posh part), and had lived there now for seven years. The family consisted of a dog, a girl, her mother and her father. Of course, no-one would say they were ordinary. The girl and her father's shared sense of humour went over most people's heads, the mother and the father weren't married (the scandal) and half of the family were magical.

Not in the amazing sense, for all four of them had enough of that, but literally; they both had wands, had both attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and both occasionally wore robes instead of t-shirts and jeans. The mother and the dog were unaware of this magic, much to the annoyance of the girl. Apart from this, they lived normally; both parents worked full-time now their daughter was at boarding school and the dog was happy as ever.

In the world, I believe there to be seven levels of friendship. Level One refers to the people who you know the first and last name of and whom you talk to outside a class or waiting for your bus, but wouldn't seek conversation with. Level Two refers to your parents' friends' children. You know, the ones who you see maybe four times a year and you have fun talking casually to, but you don't talk to them outside of these four visits. Level Three refers to the people you don't get tired of talking to, but you can't stand silences between you. You can't imagine just sitting next to them for three hours in silence reading a book each. Level four includes the silences. Level Five are those rare individuals that you would pretend to be their date for if they were ever being hit on by someone creepy in a bar, with all acting included, and you wouldn't feel at all weird about it afterwards. Level six is level five plus not actually acting when the creepy person hits on them.

Level seven is sharing a grave.

So of course, life in Alpra for this particular family of four changed when Lydjah Dawson met Jayna Blackwood. Oh she didn't know it then, and it was really nobody's fault that they became such good friends, but one moment they were casual level three friends, and the next they were at solid level five. One moment, Jayna's family was alive and the next they were not. One moment, neither of them had a best friend, and the next they'd made a friendship that would span eleven decades through the simple question of 'can I stay with you?'.

However, they'd had a decade apart before they'd had a decade together. And if there was one thing that her Pureblood upbringing had ingrained in her completely, Jayna would say it was that you can never dress up too much for a party.

So, when Lydjah opened Jayna's bedroom door and found her friend sat despondent on her bed, still in her pyjamas despite the fact that they only had an hour before they should leave, it didn't take much to put two and two together.

"You haven't got an outfit, have you?"

"No."

Their summer, up unto this point, had been mostly uneventful. Lydjah has introduced Jayna to the cinema (they had gone to see _Captain Marvel _more times than either of them would ever admit and more times than Alen would pay for) and she'd read the entire _Game of Thrones_ series at Alen's recommendation, and now all four of them were watching the TV show together (a source of great embarrassment for Lydjah and Jayna and therefore great amusement for Alen and Sophia). The rest of the time had been spent lounging about in the unfamiliar sunshine just enjoying not being in school; they planned to hopefully go to France next year but this year Alen's work had got in the way. Speaking of Alen, they'd been pushing him for an exact date as to when he was going to tell Sophia about magic but he kept procrastinating it and pushing it back (by distracting the girls with various treats and bribes that they unashamedly fell for).

Their school letters were supposed to come any day now, not that they had anything new in them except school supplies for the various subject changes and the next book in each core subject. Letters from their friends had been entirely different; they were practically bursting with interesting news. Both Lydjah and Jayna were feeling magic withdrawal and couldn't wait to go to the Potters' where they could finally use the wands that were gathering dust in their respective drawers.

"DAD!" Alen, after having to deal with thirteen years of Lydjah's rubbish immune system and hence lots of running up the stairs to get to his daughter before she threw up, came barrelling through the door like there was no tomorrow.

"What is it?" He exclaimed, breathless, scanning the room for signs of danger.

"Emergency shopping trip needed; right now." Thankfully, he was more relieved than cross. A giant sheepish smile spread across Jayna's face and she jumped up. Neither Lydjah nor Alen reminded her she was in her pyjamas thinking it would be much funnier to let her work that out on her own.

"Sophia!" All of Lydjah's family found shouting to each other was much easier than having to get up and find the person and so none of them minded the screaming matches that often occurred in their house.

"What?" She called back.

"I'm just taking the girls to the park for an hour to run off some steam before their party!" 'To the park' was always their excuse if they were going to apparate; Sophia wouldn't come and check on them unless it was an emergency because of the 'overwhelming' butterfly population there (there had been one, once, but since then she refrained from coming anywhere near it), and she wouldn't get suspicious that the car was still in the drive.

"'Run off some steam'? They're not five Alen!"

"See you later! Love you!" By this point the girls and Alen were stood on the front doorstep, waving to Sophia who was watching the TV in the lounge.

"Bye mum!"

"Bye Sophia!" With that they all wandered down the drive until they were out of sight of Sophia and then, grabbing a hand of Alen's each, disapparated to Diagon Alley.

It took them all of ten minutes to get to Gringotts, and all of fifteen for Jayna to realise she was in her pyjamas. Needless to say the goblins were not very impressed as they travelled down to her vault, Alen and Lydjah were in hysterics and Jayna was equal parts angry and mortified. It didn't help that these were the very same cow pyjamas that Sam and James had found her in the year before.

She took a small sum of money out of her ridiculously full vault. Jayna and Cara had each inherited half of almost every single member of their family's wealth and the number was so great that they had to get a vault each. Jayna had always been well-off but coming to Gringotts now was rather terrifying. She had, of course, insisted that Alen and Sophia take whatever they needed to house her during the holidays, but even that had barely made a dent in the money she had to her name. They'd sold all of their family's properties but kept many of the heirlooms, which were all in Cara's vault because they hadn't sorted through them yet. Cara was living with Willow and her family (they were happy to have her; the two had been best friends since they could talk) in the holidays but the two sisters had met up a lot over the summer, although their last meeting had ended in tears.

When they reached the exit to Gringotts Lydjah was utterly amazed to see Jayna voluntarily sprint all the way to Twillfit and Tatting's, dash in through the door and beg for a party dress before Lydjah and Alen had even stepped out of the bank. Lydjah and Alen shared a look; Twillfit and Tatting's was a very upmarket shop; only the richest could afford it and, while the Dawson's were not poor, this was one luxury they'd never seen the point in expending upon. They entered just in time to hear Jayna's exclamation.

"I'm Jayna _Blackwood_! I've been coming here for years! Honestly just because I'm in my sleepwear." The shop-owner, who'd previously been about to throw the pyjama-clad girl out of her shop, froze.

"Jayna?" Jayna raised an eyebrow. "Merlin I'm so sorry. What did you say you wanted- Who are _you_?" She addressed Lydjah and Alen with derision. Alen bristled.

"This is my adopted family the Dawsons." Jayna explained, in a tone that quite clearly conveyed that if the shop-keeper did another thing to offend her she was leaving and taking her money with her.

"Right." The flustered shop-owner decided to ignore Lydjah and Alen and focused once again on Jayna.

"I want a party dress and matching shoes. I don't really care what the style is or whatever as long as it looks pretty on me and can be ready within the next forty minutes." Twenty minutes later Jayna had found the right outfit (she was quite good at shopping quickly; Lydjah was _not_); a dark-green, short, ruffled dress with a matching coloured shrug and some killer gold wedges, very similar to the ones she used to own before the fire. It wasn't too posh (I mean this was a party that James Potter and Sam Andrews were coming to after all) but it was definitely a party outfit. Lydjah personally thought they could've bought a very similar outfit from somewhere else for half the price but hey, if you had that kind of money why wouldn't you spend it on Acromantula-spun silk?

"Do you think it's so expensive because people died retrieving the silk?" Alen muttered as Jayna brought out the money to pay. Lydjah tried and failed to stifle a laugh that earnt her a glare from the frazzled shopkeeper. Jayna decided that she'd stay in the dress instead of getting changed back into her pyjamas despite the Dawsons' protests that she looked very cute as a cow.

They apparated back home again giving Lydjah time to change (she was wearing a relatively short dark-blue dress that had no back but criss-cross straps and the largest heels she could get away with walking in (which weren't that large) in order to feel slightly less tiny when stood next to Jayna. _Ah well_, Lydjah thought, _at least she wouldn't be as short as Lien_). Jayna didn't wear make-up and Lydjah had already applied hers so they were all set to go.

They'd told Sophia that they were catching the bus to Erith, which was two towns over, and that Alen was just dropping them off at the bus stop when in reality they were going to Godric's Hollow. Again they didn't need the car to get to the 'bus-stop' though Alen did get a little cross about being used as a taxi-driver. Lydjah and Jayna knew it was just because he was nervous; he was supposed to be telling Sophia about magic while they were at the party. Just as they disapparated they heard the phone ring and Sophia's sigh of exasperation as she went to get it.

They had to go apparate straight into the front garden of the Potters' house (inside their magical concealment charms) because it was a mixed magical and muggle neighbourhood. Luckily Alen had been to Godric's Hollow before because of work so he knew where he was going. They'd barely been there two seconds when Sam Andrews came crashing out of the front door, with what looked like a water gun in her hand. She'd grown maybe half an inch since they'd last seen her (which annoyed Lydjah as she had also, putting them back at the same height again. Although, Lydjah's current heels put her slightly higher) and was also almost completely soaked. She spied the two of them and ran over, grinning. They smiled back, expecting some kind of greeting but instead she turned her head back towards the house.

"James! Reinforcements!" Alen took one look at the water gun in her hand and decided he had best make his escape.

"See you later girls!" He disapparated before Lydjah could even hug him goodbye, much to her annoyance. James Potter took that moment to come bounding out of his house, his own gun clutched at his side. He had grown a whole inch if his clearly visible ankles were anything to go by. His hair looked crazier than they had ever seen it; apparently water had a frizzing effect. His glasses were mostly fogged up (which might explain why he crashed into the plant pot and toppled over it on his way to greet them). They rushed over and helped him up as he wiped his glasses clean and smeared the mud on his face even more with the back of his sleeve. When he brought his arm back and saw the stain he paled.

"Blackwood please clean my sleeve otherwise my mum is going to kill me." Jayna had been expecting the first words he'd say to her after a month and a half (not including letters) would be something along the lines of 'hello' but she'd make do. She quickly scourgified his sleeve, ignored his over-dramatic promises of being eternally in her debt and inquired about the water guns.

"What are they?" In response, Sam shot it in her face. They all froze, wondering what Jayna's reaction was going to be (she still had her wand out after all) but to their surprise she grinned widely.

"Muggle _Aguamenti_ Charms?"

"Yeah. They're called water-guns." Jayna's eyes widened.

"I thought you said guns were like killing curses!" James frowned.

"Well they are, normal ones, but these only shoot water."

"It's a bit morbid isn't it? Children's toys based on things that kill." Either because he didn't understand the word 'morbid' or because he wasn't interested in getting into a debate, James didn't argue the point.

"Ok so basically it's me, Sam, Fred and you two against Roxanne, Molly, Lucy, Lily, Hugo, Lien, Scorpius and Albus." He said, duplicating his gun twice and passing one each to the two bewildered Ravenclaws. "And you can't have more than one gun each."

"Why are there so many more people on the other team?" Lydjah asked.

"Because Lucy only ever plays with Molly and Lily only ever plays with Al and Hugo only ever plays with Lily and Roxanne wanted all the firsties on her team." He stated this like they were some of the truths of the universe; Sam and Jayna were nodding like they completely understood. Lydjah assumed it was a sibling thing.

"They're not firsties anymore." Jayna pointed out. Lydjah shot her best friend her finally perfected 'we-know-you're-right-but-no-one-cares' look. Just then, Molly Weasley, Lucy Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy ran out, screaming a battle-cry (well, Molly and Scorpius were screaming; Lucy was smiling slightly, twisting a lock of hair around her finger as she gripped her gun loosely in their direction). Molly had grown another inch, as had Scorpius, but other than that they looked the same as ever, if a little sunburnt on Molly's part. Jayna had a split second to be glad that Scorpius was able to let loose and just be a kid for once before pegging it round the other side of the house.

"Duck!" A male voice shouted from the balcony above their heads. Instinctively the four of them ducked into the side of the house just missing the barrage of water balloons that quite literally rained from above causing Molly and co to make a hasty retreat.

"This is absolutely bloody insane!" Jayna laughed, figuring out the trigger on her water gun. She slipped off her heels and carefully Imperviused them before leaving them next to the side of the house.

"Thanks Fred!" James called up.

"No problem little cuz!" James scowled at being called little though he felt better when he stood next to Jayna once she'd taken her heels off; he was two inches taller than her now. She glared at his smug expression, shooting him with a quick burst of water. He grinned playfully, advancing on her.

"Attempted mutiny in the ranks! This calls for punishment!" He chased her round into the first field of the garden (the other team had their base in the second), both of them giggling. Lydjah and Sam sauntered more casually down, keeping an eye out for the opposition.

"Honestly if it wasn't Jayna I'd say James was flirting." Sam said mildly. When Lydjah gave no reply she turned to her friend only to see her resurface from a strange trance.

"You had a vision!" Sam exclaimed excitedly. "Tell me!"

"No."

"Come _on_ Lydjah!" Lydjah made a face but she was caving easily.

"You can't tell anyone. That includes James." Sam pouted sarcastically but agreed.

"_A night-like room, all dark blues and purples, with hard stone floor and walls. There's a thin puddle of water, in which Jayna is lying, possibly coming from her clothes as she's completely soaked. It's hard to see her appearance in the light but she's older definitely, and more tired too. She reaches up clumsily with her right hand, which is shaking slightly, and cups James' face, before aligning her lips with his_."

"What?! Oh my fucking Merlin. You're _sure _it was James she was snogging? And are your visions always triggered by something you've seen; like the water in this case?"

"For the latter, usually yeah. Most of the time it's rooms that I've walked past. And they're usually not this far in advance either. When I had that concussion though… It was all over the place and entirely irrelevant to what I was literally seeing. For the former… I don't make the visions." Lydjah said, jokingly holding her hands up in the surrender sign. "They didn't actually kiss anyway; they just looked extremely close to it. I'm not sure; maybe they're not actually going to snog at all." Sam gave her a disbelieving look.

"I hadn't thought about it myself but maybe it would work…" Sam said thoughtfully, cocking her head at the two teenagers who had finally stopped play-fighting. Jayna was clearly upset; Lydjah assumed it had something to do with the slight rip in her dress.

"James Potter I'm going to kill you!" She announced, marching behind him from where he'd started to wander off. She could repair her dress easily but that wasn't the point.

"Or, you know, maybe not." Sam cackled, only for Lydjah's ears.

"Whatever Blackwood." James said, uninterested as he wiped his glasses on his knee. Before he put them back on, however, he crashed into one of the patio-chairs where a blurry blonde-haired beauty was sitting. He assumed it was one of Roxanne's friends. "Oh hey there." He said flirtatiously, flashing the infamous Potter grin. Jayna tapped him on the shoulder. "What do you _want_ Blackwood?" He asked, irritated, turning around to face her with an apologetic smile at the beauty as he slipped his glasses back on.

"That's your cousin." Jayna said flatly, and with that walked inside to get a drink and thank her hosts. James turned round to see Victoire choking on an ice cube that she'd accidently swallowed too early in her laughter. Teddy was sat next to her, his arm swung round her back (currently patting it gently trying to get his girlfriend to stop choking), raising his eyebrows at James.

"Something you want to tell me James?" James spluttered and narrowed his eyes when Sam's loud laughter came from behind him where Lydjah and his best friend were holding each other up from laughing so much, before reluctantly joining in himself and apologising to Victoire.

"I can't believe-" Sam began, almost biting her own tongue in her hilarity.

"I know right- Kissing- As if- Ha!" Lydjah agreed. James gave them a concerned look just as Jayna barrelled past again, carrying three drinks. James attempted to steal one but she gave him a look that rivalled his mother's in intensity so he went to get his own.

"For you two idiots." Jayna said, passing the drinks to Lydjah and Sam before taking a sip of her own. She blinked rapidly and peered into her cup.

"Is yours alright Jayna? You're looking at it like you've never had Coke before." Sam laughed.

"I've never had Coke before." Sam gaped at her.

"What the Hell have your parents been feeding her?" Sam accused Lydjah. Lydjah shrugged.

"We're just not a Coke family I guess." They then both sniggered at the implication that everyone else's families were on drugs, much to the bewilderment of Jayna.

"You know where to buy this?" Jayna asked excitedly of Sam.

"Er, yeah; any supermarket, most corner shops-"

"It's wonderful!"

"Wait till you try Fanta." Lydjah said.

"Porque?"

"You can buy raspberry flavoured Fanta." Jayna's eyes widened in delight.

"No way!"

"I don't think I've ever seen someone that excited over a drink." James said from behind them. Jayna swotted at him but her anger seemed to have vanished. "I've called for a ceasefire so we can sort out this whole task thing." James continued, gesturing at the patio doors where Molly, Scorpius, Lien Irby and Albus Potter were emerging, laden with snacks and drinks.

They moved away from the party (technically three of them weren't even invited for the birthday girl anyway) and into the second field where they settled into the den made by Lucy, Lily and Hugo. Sam produced the rewritten copy of the parchment (the _Gemino _spell had worn off after a while but not before Sam had the good sense to write out the words onto a new piece of paper) from the guardian of the Secret from her back pocket and they all hunched over it.

_'__Congratulations on completing the final Starter test. You were wise to realise the Quintaped was a fight you could not win._

_Please choose a category to proceed:_

_Charms  
>Riddles<br>Choices  
>Endurance<br>Illusions'_

"Riddles doesn't sound too hard. I mean sure they're bound to be complicated but not life-threatening." Lien pointed out, munching on a chocolate cauldron.

"What if it has some kind of count-down again? And if I was put in charge of working out a riddle while you lot were all slowly dying… You'd all be extremely dead by the time I worked out the answer." Jayna countered, gesturing with the spoon from her ice cream tub (the sad truth was at the moment Jayna could only eat her favourite food in a tub because of her tongue-tie, a fact that she hated and Lydjah loved to tease about). Ordinarily most of them would've laughed at Jayna's description but after the events of last year no-one felt like joking about death.

"Well if we have to do all of them to get to this thing why don't we just do them in order?" Scorpius suggested. The group agreed to this as they chewed on their snacks, all of them feeling very far away from the dark depths under the school as they did so.

A little while later a lot had happened. Lily, Hugo, Lucy, Roxanne and Rose had been uninformed about the temporary truce and had instead thought James, Sam, Jayna and Lydjah had taken the other four hostage, and so naturally had accosted the only remaining member of their team before coming to attack them. A second water-fight had ensued this time with almost all parties present on the battlefield and the four no-longer-first years re-joining their original team, claiming they'd been lured in with food. The four no-longer-second-years had to fight with their wands (using only the _Aguamenti_ charm though everyone was casting suspicious looks at James and Sam when a member of the other team suddenly fell flat on their face apparently for no reason (it was actually Lydjah who was performing the trip jinxes; she was just using everyone's natural healthy distrust of James and Sam to her advantage)) as they'd left their guns just outside the house (and Jayna and Lydjah's had disappeared anyway, being only copies of an original gun). After a while the four of them managed to regroup for long enough to work out a plan.

"We let poor Fred be captured; we need to go find him."

"Agreed." Sam said. She admired Fred Weasley's jokes; he was more the entertainment sort, displaying his talent in regular set-up shows to small audiences as opposed to Phase Two who 'subtly' did rare but complicated and diverse school-wide pranks. "Phase Two should go get him I mean we know him best."

"What the Hell's with this 'Phase Two' business?" It was a question that had been bugging Lydjah since the end-of-term feast but she kept forgetting to ask.

"Well it's kind of got a double meaning," James fired a shot over the remains of the den at Hugo who'd come too close for comfort (the ten year old quickly dodged behind the fence), "One; there's two of us, obviously, and two; we're the second phase of Marauders."

"Was your dad not the second phase of Marauders?"

"No because he was mostly too busy saving the world to play pranks. I mean he got the occasional one in there but from what I've heard it's nothing on the original Marauders. I mean, they managed to become Animaguses and make the Map; clearly they were intelligent and had a lot of time on their hands."

"Cool. But I don't think _you_ should go to get Fred." Jayna said.

"What, why?"

"You two are our best shots. I think we should send one person while the other three cover them."

"Ok; which one of you two then?" Lydjah and Jayna shared a look and had a silent conversation.

"I'll go." Lydjah announced, turning back to James and Sam.

"Alright. On three we'll charge towards those guys and distract them while Lydjah goes through the gap in the fence. Once we see she's out of the field we'll fall back and regroup behind the den again, yeah?" Looking at him now, Sam could see so much of Harry in him. It was obvious that James was destined to be an Auror, just as it was obvious that Albus was destined to play professional Quidditch and Fred and Roxanne were going to run their dad and uncle's joke shop. Sam just hoped that she'd be fighting just as faithfully alongside him then as she was now, whatever he ended up being.

She wouldn't, but again, that's neither here nor there.

"Three, two, one, CHARGE!"

For the entire charge Lydjah couldn't really remember anything but the euphoric adrenaline pumping through her veins, the excited giggles spewing from her mouth and vibrating through her skin and the greenness of the grass. Then she was through the fence and jogging swiftly towards the house, throwing her slightly damp hair over one shoulder. Victoire and Teddy were sat two metres away from each other in the lounge, pained looks on their faces as the other adults separated them and laughed at Bill's stony face. Lydjah gathered it had something to do with the plan James had mentioned in one of his letters; Victoire meant to go with Teddy on his next tour of the world that started in September; he'd done Europe so now they were going to Asia. Needless to say, Bill wasn't very keen on the idea though the rest of their family were wearing him down. She smiled at them all as she passed, which they returned, before disappearing up the stairs.

She wandered around for a while, feeling rather intrusive and not wanting to just burst into someone's bedroom. Why had she volunteered for this in the first place?

It wasn't until she reached James' room, obvious from the sheer number of Quidditch posters and red and gold bedcovers (Albus' room was dark green, not that you could see it well as his walls were covered in photos), that she finally found Fred Weasley.

The first thing she noticed was that Fred was very ginger. Of course, this was obvious as he was a Weasley and the colour was so glaringly bright that no-one could ever forget this fact. The second, apart from noting various other Weasley traits; the freckles and the slightly longer-than-perfect nose, was that he was strung upside down by the _Levicorpus_ spell.

She made a move to get her wand out to help him, only to realise he had his own in his front pocket, and she was sure he was perfectly capable of undoing the not-quite-second-years-yet's magic. So why hadn't he?

"Oh hey; Lydjah right?" He grinned widely at her and she found herself smiling back. His cheeks had heated a little, not that Lydjah noticed as his whole face was rather red from being upside-down for so long.

"Yeah… Why haven't you let yourself down?" In response, Fred waved his left hand slightly. He was holding a rather large cream pie, or rather half of one.

"If I let myself down I'd have to take a break from eating this. One does not easily give up my dad's cooking." It was after he uttered this sentence that Lydjah had the strangest sense of Deja vu (and she would know) as if she was trying to see a vision of herself, but couldn't quite manage it. Her stomach flipped over, her eyes fluttered and she gave an involuntary snort that she tried to cover with one hand.

"Did the other team give you that so you wouldn't join in the second water-fight?" He somehow managed to shrug, though the gesture was very strange.

"Suppose so. Guess it worked." Lydjah couldn't help herself; she burst out laughing. He grinned again with pride, glad to have made her laugh.

"Would you like a hand down?" She finally choked out. He shook his head.

"I got this." He took out his wand with his free hand, the pie balancing precariously in the other, and flicked it quickly, managing to roll slightly as he fell so he landed on his arse instead of his head, the pie completely intact. He took another bite as he jumped to his feet, causing a bit of cream to smear across his face. Lydjah wondered vaguely what he'd do if she reached to wipe it off with her thumb, before he solved her problem for her by licking it off. "You're a Halfblood right?"

"Yes?"

"Well it's just there's something wrong with my phone, and I think you might be able to fix it." He brought out an old windows phone, but apart from its age it looked perfectly serviceable to Lydjah's rather limited knowledge.

"What's wrong with it?"

"It doesn't have your number." Fred held the phone out to her, an offer. She blinked, a little stunned at the smoothness of that pick-up line before numbly reaching out and making a new contact on his phone.

She handed it back, raising her eyebrows. "You barely know me." She accused softly, real confusion behind her statement. Fred grinned widely again.

"Saw you dancing at Blackwood's party and I've wanted to ask you out since then; a girl who can hold that much alcohol and still dance and speak coherently is pretty much perfect in my book." Lydjah laughed and blushed in equal parts.

"My one and only skill I assure you."

"I highly doubt that." He quipped lightly. "You coming?"

"Where?" She asked, bewildered (but not in any way upset) about the entire meeting.

"Back to the water-fight of course; I can't let down James; he'd never let me hear the end of it. The food thing stays between us yeah?" Lydjah smiled mischievously.

"Can't make me." With that she took off, ignoring Fred's protests of it being unfair because he couldn't run with a pie.


	2. Chapter Two

**AN: Happy New Year!**

**Dream cast for Sam Andrews?  
>I'll post mine at the start of the next chapter :)<strong>**.**

Chapter Two  
>Of Summer, Shopping and School<p>

The four firsties-no-longer had decided to meet up in Diagon Alley two and a half weeks before they were due to go back to school to buy their school stuff and get some ice-cream. They'd all had busy summers, though they all thought the biggest event had yet to happen; namely the final match of the Quidditch World Cup which was to be held the day after next. A 'freak' lightning storm (well there were various accusing fingers being pointed to those teams who had not quite made it in) that had hit the stadium after the semi-finals at the end of July caused the match to be put back all the way until then as they rebuilt the stadium and got rid of the many creatures who had been attracted to the lightning (not a normal effect of a lightning storm causing even more accusations).

They'd only barely made their greetings in the Leaky Cauldron before Albus launched excitedly into the newest update on the teams from his mum, who was, of course, reporting the entire thing. When Albus had finally paused for breath (his father was looking at him in astonishment; what on earth had got into the quiet boy he had sent on the train last year?), Harry quickly went over the instructions again; emergency meeting point was Rosa Lee Teabag's; Audrey's favourite tea-shop, where the adults would be staying for the entire trip. They had to stay together, they had to be sensible, and if something completely awful happened they had to shoot red sparks out from their wands to alert their parents as to where they were.

The adults only consisted of Harry and Audrey as Lien was sleeping over at Molly's that night and Draco had thought it was best to just make sure his son was ok and then leave as quickly as possible before Harry could awkwardly offer if he'd like to go with them and he could awkwardly decline. When they were finally satisfied that the children were aware of their instructions they led the kids into Diagon Alley and then parted ways. The children had all been given money by their parents to cover their school supplies (though Lien had had to stop by at Gringotts earlier in the week to convert it into Wizarding money).

"Where do you want to go first?" Albus asked excitedly, clutching his school equipment letter in his hand.

"Well if we have to buy all the boring stuff we might as well do that first and then we have something to look forward to." Scorpius suggested. The other three agreed, and they took off towards Amanuensis Quills.

"So; what's everyone been up to?" Albus ventured as he perused between the aisles of the shop. "I mean we didn't really get a chance to talk at the party." They all grinned as they remembered the water fight; with their superior numbers their team had finally captured James, Sam and Jayna (Lydjah and Fred were suspiciously absent until it was time for Lydjah to go home) and Roxanne had led a very smug song of 'Happy Birthday to you' for herself. After this she had stuck James' hand to a pot of gravy, and he'd had the amusing response of 'Not again!' which had caused all the Weasley/Potters to laugh and those not used to this reoccurring tradition to be a faintly confused.

"Well I went to Tenerife." Lien said with a grin. "With my family and my parents' friends and their sons, the Parrahs."

"Oh?" Molly nudged her, waggling her eyebrows. Lien blushed but dug into her small handbag to pass round a photo of the eight of them on the beach.

"Not like that! Kyle's _way _too old for me and Rian… I could never see him like that." Molly gave her a look.

"Well if you're not having him I'm sure plenty of people would! Have you seen those _abs_?!" Lien laughed and Scorpius pretended he didn't notice Albus glancing at his own chest.

"Anyway; where on earth did you go Mol? You're browner than chocolate!" Molly grinned, admiring her bronze hands.

"We went to Egypt. Dad had to go with work and he grudgingly took the rest of us with him. Of course he was really boring dragging us round all these museums but mum got him to back off a bit and managed to sneak in a couple of camel rides about the place while dad was checking the Floo to England for the Egyptian Minister of Magic."

"Wow." Scorpius said raising his eyebrows. If it had been anyone other than Scorpius, Molly would've thought they were taking the mickey by their tone but Scorpius never said anything with above minimum excitement. "I haven't done much. Just sort of slept really." The other three laughed but internally they were all wondering just how lonely Scorpius must be in that huge house.

"Did you do any more drawing?" Albus asked slyly. Scorpius froze.

"W-what?" He choked out. The other two stopped to stare at him, putting down the quills they were admiring. Scorpius sounding less than composed?

"Oh come on; I've shared a room with you for the past year. You honestly think I didn't notice you doing your 'homework' every day? Especially on the days that we hadn't received any?" Scorpius glared at him. Albus seemed to realise that he'd hit a nerve because his smug grin turned down a notch and he poked his friend with a quill feather, right on the nose. Scorpius gave him an utterly befuddled look as the two girls clutched each other with laughter.

"Your face!" Lien gasped out.

"Are you going to pay for those?" A particularly bored and nasally sounding shop assistant came up from behind Molly. They all jumped in surprise and Lien and Molly shared slightly scared looks.

"Yes!" Lien squeaked out, grabbing Molly's arm. "We were just on our way now!" She dragged Molly off towards the desk at the front of the shop, hurriedly bringing out her purse as she went. Once the creepy shop assistant had disappeared off to scare someone else Albus turned back to Scorpius who was determinedly looking at two identical quills as if there was a difference between them.

"I thought they were pretty good actually." Scorpius dropped one of the quills and immediately bent to pick it up, his entire face going beetroot red. Al hadn't realised this was such a big thing to his friend; he'd only thought that Scorpius might not want people to know because they wouldn't think it was very macho. Now he realised that Scorpius didn't give a damn about appearing macho and he probably shouldn't have brought it up so callously.

"You looked at them?" He hissed. Albus winced.

"Yeah. And Sam says the one you did for Jayna is at the front of her bedside-table." Scorpius placed the quills back on the shelf carefully, trying to control his shaking hands. He wasn't entirely sure why he was so upset, or even if he was upset. His drawing was his secret and he didn't like other people knowing about it. He hadn't liked Jayna knowing about it, and he wasn't quite sure what had possessed him to paint the picture for her only one moment he was just sketching and the next he had a fully detailed drawing of that Christmas Social. Thank Merlin he'd managed to get out of the latest Christmas one by staying at Hogwarts but he'd been dragged to three over the summer.

"Which ones did you see?" He didn't look at Al as he spoke.

"Just the sketches of your parents." Scorpius breathed an internal sigh of relief. "So do you just do pictures of people?"

"Yeah; haven't ever seen the point of drawing what someone could just go and see for themselves or have actual photos of. And surrealism has never been my thing. Look, Al, I know you didn't mean anything by it… But art's kind of my outlet I suppose, like yours is Quidditch. It's very personal to me and I just- It's not a thing I show to people often."

"I get it. I'll stay away from your drawings from now on, alright, unless you say otherwise." Scorpius settled back into himself and gave his usual half-smile in gratitude.

"Go, go, go!" Molly and Lien had returned and were gesturing urgently towards the door. "The creepy guy's coming back!" Albus risked a glance to the end of the aisle where the spotty shop assistant was walking towards them before promptly speeding out of the shop.

By the time the four of them made it back towards the adults they were laden down with several hours' worth of shopping. They'd all bought _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 2)_ by Miranda Goshawk, both Lien and Albus bought a new set of phials (glass and crystal respectively) having each broken at least one the year before while Molly and Scorpius both bought an extra Transfiguration book. Molly and Scorpius had spent a good portion of the time conversing between themselves as Albus excitedly showed Lien round a number of different broom shops and then they'd all grabbed an ice cream. They'd sat to eat the ice-cream on one of the street corners, something that would become a habit to them in the following years, and merely chatted until it was time to meet up with Harry and Audrey.

Of course, considering it was them, the shopping trip could not go so easily.

Molly heard the tell-tale crack of an untalented apparator before anyone else did. She thought nothing of it for the first two seconds, after all; people apparated from Diagon Alley all the time. It was only when a huge whoosh of fire exploded in the nearest building to them, blowing the roof off and shattering all the windows, that she finally saw the apparator.

She thought they were cleverer than the Death Eaters, because while the Death Eaters had masks to protect their identity it wasn't as if the sinister black robes were exactly inconspicuous. The man who had cast the fiery curse was wearing normal Wizarding robes, same as everyone else, and he disapparated again before anyone could take more than a note of his gender.

Albus was the next one to react, loudly enough to yank the rest of them out of their stupor, with a cry of horror as he registered which particular building had gone up in flames. It was, of course, Rosa Lee Teabag's. The four of them immediately registered that this was a specific attack on Harry as why on earth else would you blow up a café?

Lien was third, almost robotically throwing her wand arm into the air and shouting out the spell that would cause red sparks to appear above them. Scorpius was struggling, doing some sort of jittery dance as he tried to work out whether going forwards or getting back was a better option. There was another crack and a huge flare of light as another shop went up in flames, further down the street. A sharp blue spell sped towards the person who'd cast the spell, from an unknown assailant, but the mysterious apparator disappeared again before it hit him.

Albus ran into the crowd and was quickly lost to the other three. Without a word between the two of them Molly and Lien plunged after him. Scorpius felt like screaming. He had no idea what to do, and could only try to stay up as the myriad of panicked people charged in all directions around him.

Like an electric shock, as his bad mood channelled down the wand that never left his hand and put a scorch mark on the pavement, Scorpius finally snapped out of it, beginning to unsteadily shove back at the crowd in what he hoped was the right direction.

Albus was already at the café entrance by the time Lien and Molly broke free of the throng of people. Dean Thomas had a firm hand on his shoulder and was gesturing to his small team of Aurors that had obviously been alerted to the danger as the fire had almost completely gone out. Albus didn't appear to agree with what he was saying as he was desperately trying to struggle out of the adult's grip.

Lien tugged him to the side and out of the way of the opening door where a grim-faced Auror carrying a hysterically crying young boy was coming through.

"Where's Peters?" He asked gruffly of Dean. Dean shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

"Any sign of Harry?" The other Auror shook his head.

"Everyone barring this one seems to have apparated out of there as soon as they saw the fire. I doubt the boss would've lingered."

"True."

"I don't understand it. Fire is easily dealt with, especially with so many magical people on hand. A twelve year old could have sorted this."

"I don't get it either. Perhaps this was just a demonstration."

"I wouldn't want to be the one to tell Rosa that." Dean chuckled.

"Does this little guy need any medical help?"

"Nah he's unharmed just a little shaken up; I think I need to have a word with whoever was looking after him though."

"Alright then; you take care of him and meet me back at the office. I'll set up cleaning crews and start getting witnesses. If you see any sign of Harry-"

"Send a message. I know." The Auror murmured something to the younger boy who nodded weakly before disapparating with him.

Before Albus could start arguing with Dean again he was slammed into a very worried hug.

"Oh thank Merlin." Harry Potter gripped his youngest son tightly. Albus looked like he was trying very hard not to cry.

"Dad." He croaked weakly. When he was finally released from where his head had been buried in his dad's shoulder he saw Molly was receiving the same treatment from Audrey and Lien was hugging her sides tightly in relief. He looked up to see both Draco and Astoria Malfoy searching frantically through the milling crowd. His heart rate picked up again; where was Scorpius?

He scanned the people anxiously, hoping to see a flash of white-blonde hair and throwing off his dad's concerned questions. Just as he was about to launch into the crowd himself he saw a very frazzled Scorpius dashing, as elegantly as possible, attempting to look unruffled, to his parents, from entirely the wrong direction. Stood as close as he was Albus could hear Scorpius' apology and explanation as to how he'd got lost in the crowd. His mother gave him a very undignified hug and his father squeezed his shoulders reassuringly, nodding at Harry before apparating his small family away.


	3. Chapter Three

**AN: Technically I'm still within my month limit. Just :)**

**My dream-cast for Sam Andrews would be Isabelle Allen, as in the girl from _Les Miserables_. This is purely looks-wise though.**

**Dream-cast for James Sirius Potter? Or do you think they got it right in the epilogue scene in _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two_?**

Chapter Three  
>Of How To Get To The Middle Of Nowhere And Regrettable Decisons<p>

All in all, Draco had reacted better than Scorpius expected. Draco didn't blame Harry, or any of Scorpius' friends for Scorpius getting lost. Sure, he hadn't had a second of time to himself since he'd got back but he didn't really want any; he never had.

It had been all over the news of course; 'Unknown criminals attempt to blow up Head Auror and saviour of the Wizarding World; Harry Potter', 'There were thankfully no casualties', 'There is no lead as to who these mysterious culprits might be', 'It is unknown whether these were the same people who kidnapped The Boy Who Lived's oldest son; James Potter and prestigious Pureblood family's tragically orphaned; Jayna Blackwood, in October' etc. A whole lot of 'we have no idea' really so Scorpius was glad of his company; they were at least vaguely interesting.

Besides, the unusual companionship had given him a chance to look a bit closer at his family and had made him realise he'd actually taken his parents at face-value. Not that they were hugely different underneath their highborn exterior, but there were subtleties that Scorpius was only just now picking up on. It was a saddening thought that he didn't even know his own family.

There had always been tension between Narcissa and Astoria. Scorpius had assumed it was typical mother-in-law disagreement but now Scorpius was beginning to see that Narcissa didn't like how Astoria had brought him up. While his paternal grandparents had ratted out tens of their Death Eater comrades after the war in order to stay out of prison, they still very much believed in the Pureblood Supremacy. Astoria and Draco were a little more subtle, more fluid. When with families like the Goyles they were every bit the pompous rich beautiful couple that looked down on all who were 'less' than them. At home though, they were slightly less stiff. They didn't call Muggleborns, Mudbloods; they just didn't speak of them at all. Scorpius searched back through his mind and realised that it was only Lucius who'd ever said to him that Muggles were scum, and Draco had immediately interrupted and said that politics weren't allowed at the dinner table.

Scorpius wondered if that was why his mother often came home late from work; in order to avoid tension-filled meals. He'd only now began to see the pattern between his grandparents visits (which were frequent but they did primarily live in their cottage) and his mother's emergency work plans.

His mother's side of the family were less frequent but slightly more welcome visitors. Daphne Greengrass had gone through the same kind of shock to reality as her sister, and his maternal grandparents had never fully supported _extremist_ Pureblood actions anyway.

He guessed that his parents, and therefore their views, had been changed by their experiences in the war that they both refused to speak of. While Draco spoke to his father with as much respect as he had before the war, it was clear that their views no longer lined up exactly.

Scorpius was very glad, then, that it was just him and his parents who were going to the Quidditch World Cup. He almost smiled when Draco informed him that Vincent Goyle and his father would not be meeting up with them as he was running a fever. Of course there would be no escape from the younger boy when September rolled around as Scorpius thought it was highly unlikely he'd end up in Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Hufflepuff.

The three of them were portkeying to Germany where it was being held. Astoria had given her husband a look of utter outrage (though there was hint of teasing behind it) when he jokingly suggested they camped over; instead they were just going to watch the match and they were leaving at midnight, whether the match was finished or not.

Scorpius knew it was unlikely he'd have a chance to speak to Albus, Molly, Sam or James as they'd be surrounded by the press until they got to the game but he did wonder if he might see Jayna or Lydjah, if they were even going, which he doubted. He assumed Lien wasn't coming as Molly had given no indication she was taking her when they were shopping.

Speaking of Jayna though, that reminded him of another thing he needed to talk to his parents about. He had plenty of time; it was a little bit of stretch to get to where their portkey was taking off and Scorpius had violently protested the idea of side-along apparation; it was horrible enough the first time; he had no wish to repeat the experience.

"Father?" He asked hesitantly as the exited their huge house, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"Yes Scorpius?" Draco looked at his son.

"Why did you call off my betrothal to Jay?" His father blinked a little and averted his gaze, the only sign that he was surprised.

"Jayna Blackwood?"

"Was there another Jay I was engaged to?" Scorpius asked wryly, hoping he wouldn't think he was being rude. Draco chuckled slightly.

"No… How did you find out about that?"

"Through the lady herself?" He said, giving him a look that clearly asked where on earth else he thought he'd got it from.

"You're still friendly with her?"

"Yes."

"Well at least you've got a bit of good influence." Astoria muttered. Scorpius carefully refrained from rolling his eyes.

"Is there a problem with the rest of my friends mother?"

"I just," Astoria ignored her husband's warning glance, "I'm wondering when you're going to grow out of this phase is all." Scorpius was rather impressed that his voice stayed as impartial as it did when he replied.

"'Phase'?"

"I know you like Albus and that other Weasley and… Leah was it? But-"

"It's Lien." That was all Scorpius said on the subject, turning his face away from his mother and back to his father. "If Jay's such a good influence why did you call it off?"

"Your mother and I thought it wouldn't be… _Appropriate_ for you to marry a girl whose political views are very different to our own." Scorpius felt like saying '_your_ own' but didn't, keeping hold of the cool politeness that always occupied his words. "I didn't think you'd _want_ to marry her."

"I don't. But you cut off probably the only tie, barring her sister, that she had left to _this_ world, just after her entire family had died. It's no wonder she went to live with the Dawsons."

"You think her views could be changed back?" Astoria inquired, curious. Scorpius smirked.

"Oh definitely not. She's been living with them for a year now. They've been good to her."

"Of course they have," his mother scoffed, "they've got her inheritance within their grasp."

"I don't think that's the reason they took her in mother." Astoria shared an impressed look with Draco over Scorpius' head at the steel in his tone.

"Maybe, maybe not. It's a shame either way though; so much wasted potential."

"What do you mean?"

"Well of course there's nothing _wrong _with muggles. But they can never understand our world properly, never fit in as well as Purebloods can. And Halfbloods are torn completely between the two, so neither are quite as adept at magic."

"Seriously?" Scorpius said, finally snapping, "after you went to school with Hermione Weasley?"

"Exactly!" Astoria nodded, "I went to school with her. I'm not denying she's brilliant, for of course she is, but she had, and still has, to work unbelievably hard all the time; I knew that and I wasn't even in her year."

"Anyone would have to work hard to get to where she is."

"Even so; Hermione Weasley is an anomaly." Scorpius gritted his teeth but left it alone. "I'm glad you brought up betrothals though Scorpius; I've been thinking; perhaps Elsa Zabini? Or even Harriet Selwyn-"

"Oh look we're here!" Scorpius exclaimed loudly. Draco's snigger was not missed by his wife who swotted him lightly on the arm as they hurried after their son. He picked up the immaculate umbrella and raised his eyebrows. "Inconspicuous object?" Draco smirked back at his son, placing a hand on the black-and-white spotted umbrella at the same time as his wife.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Nope." Scorpius said cheerfully as the portkey glowed blue and something hooked his navel and sent them spinning across the world.

It was with reckless abandon that Lydjah threw on a mismatching outfit, an insouciant smile on her lips, and then raced downstairs, thankfully only slamming her leg on the poorly-placed chair in the corridor once.

The Dawsons' house was currently a mess of potential hazards. It wasn't usually the cleanest place on the planet but lately it had been an obstacle course of book stacks, dirty plates and fresh washing. The house was lived in definitely; photographs and postcards from various points in Lydjah's childhood decorated the fridge; her six-year-old artwork and nine-year-old poems littered the walls, much to her protest. The kitchen was bomb-wreck of haphazardly stacked food and different shapes and sizes of china, the longue an explosion of half-finished board games and at least seven different remotes, the dining-room a massacre of various papers of Alen's and several bits of parchment that Lydjah and Jayna had forgotten to hide. That was to say nothing of their bedrooms.

Alen and Sophia's featured parts of several computers and many mismatched pyjama sets all strewn in a strange sort of path through the room. Lydjah's shelves were as messed up and uncleared as always and there were more crumbs between her sheets then on the dirty crockery. Jayna's no longer showed any recognisable patch of floor as the many articles of clothing she couldn't be bothered to hang up hid it completely, not to mention the growing pile of books and the strange smell of her potions extra-credit homework (hidden inside her trunk) which gave the entire room a sense that some creature was hovelled away in there.

The reason for this was that Sophia, being the amazing person that she was usually the one clearing things up after the rest of her slobby family. However, Sophia was not currently at the Dawson household.

They'd come back from Roxanne's party only to find out that Sophia's godmother had passed away; that was the call her mum had received just as they were leaving. Sophia had been inconsolable for days. This was not, of course, the cause for Lydjah's grin because she wasn't that much of a horrible person. The reason was that in light of Sophia's recent sadness, Alen had decided now was probably not the best time to be dropping the whole magic bomb on her, and, fearing his daughter's wrath, hurriedly managed to find tickets for Jayna, Lydjah and himself for the final match of the Quidditch World Cup. They were, of course, quite possibly the worst tickets available and Lydjah was 98% sure they weren't even getting seats. She didn't mind though because one; you spend most of the time at Quidditch matches on your feet anyway, and two; they were going to the fucking _Quidditch World Cup_.

They'd been planning on going on a camping trip anyway so all Sophia knew about their plans was that she was no longer going so that she could visit her Godmother's family. Sophia was taking Dylan though as her Godmother's daughter, one of Sophia's closest friends, had always loved him.

Jayna had thought it would be frankly hilarious to prank Lydjah back for the pyjama incident and so hadn't woken her up in time for Lydjah to get ready. Unfortunately for her, Lydjah had managed to wake up on her own just in time (something she was certain would never happen again) but, for once, was going to let Jayna's attempt to be funny slide as she was too damn excited to think about much else. The two of them had sat up till late in the evening the night before discussing what it would be like in hushed voices and both of them were rather hyper now. Jayna had even gone as far as to try and help Alen to make their picnic tea (because buying food at the match was not worth the queues and the expense) which had gone rather disastrously as Jayna had never cooked before in her life. Lydjah said sandwiches didn't even count as cooking and how Jayna had managed to spray tuna all over the walls was a mystery to everyone but her (she'd hidden the whisk she'd tried to use when she'd (belatedly) realised tuna wasn't supposed to be whisked).

Teaching Jayna how to use more muggle technology… Well it obviously wasn't going well. Lydjah managed to crack up every time the toaster popped or the phone rang as Jayna still jumped a foot in the air. She'd just about handled the kitchen appliances (electric whisk excluded) though she still didn't understand how any of them actually worked but trying to introduce her to the internet was going disastrously. She remained thoroughly unconvinced that muggles were intelligent enough to create a huge amass of knowledge about literally anything but hadn't worked out there was an entire magical world hidden right under their noses, and was of the mind that Alen had added to the Dawson's internet which was why theirs was so good. Jayna _was_ very interested in how muggles cured disease and disappointed at how little Lydjah knew. She asked Alen when she could, but it wasn't exactly his line of work and plus she could only ask out of range of Sophia.

Lydjah had finally caught up on all the many seasons of shows she'd missed while she was away and found Jayna's confused chatter amusing as she tried to work out how the characters in _Merlin _had managed to do wandless, non-verbal magic and why their eyes always glowed when they did. She was continually protesting over the incantations when they were used, stating that they made no sense, and how she highly doubted the _real_ Merlin was as good looking as Colin Morgan, or in love with King Arthur.

Both Ravenclaws had cried buckets in the final episode and Jayna had expressed outrage that the extremely clear love between the King and his servant was never properly expressed. For the next few days whenever anyone thanked her she would glare ferociously at them and go into a very confusing rant about how some people say 'thank you' when really they mean 'I love you' (well confusing for all those who hadn't watched _Merlin_).

The only way she'd managed to get her friend out of her dramatics was to talk about Quidditch. Lydjah wasn't entirely sure who she should be supporting in the World Cup; Germany or Spain. Jayna had given her a weird look when she'd voiced this and said Spain, _obviously_, because they both spoke a little Spanish from their lessons with Professor Casales and in her opinion German sounded horrible (Lydjah wasn't entirely sure what this had to do with which Quidditch team she should support but agreed nonetheless). She had a feeling Germany were going to win; there's nothing like playing on your home ground (or so she'd been told) but it was definitely going to be an interesting match. She'd been unable to find out any of the odds or statistics from the previous matches from the Daily Prophet or the Quibbler; her dad had said that the less Wizarding post they got the better, and she thought asking Albus, James or Sam would no doubt end in a letter too heavy for her poor owl to carry.

As Sophia had already left there was no need to pretend to take the car, as long as they came back before she did. Alen did a quick concealing charm just in case, but charms had never been his forte and the car just ended up looking vaguely paler. Jayna stared at what she viewed as an overweight, loud metal death-trap with distaste; her few journeys in it to go to the cinema and the like had not gone well and had left Sophia profoundly confused when Jayna admitted she'd never been in a car before. Lydjah noted this expression with a grin; the first thing she'd looked up when she'd showed Jayna the internet was the average number of deaths from car crashes per year. Needless to say, it had made Jayna go a little green.

Alen had only fortified his house the muggle way and so there were no spells preventing apparation or portkeying. He checked his watch a final time and, noting the time, held his hands out to his daughter and her friend, turned on the spot, and vanished.

The leaves stirred slightly in the yard as the three remaining inhabitants of the house disappeared, catching round the wheels of the partly-invisible car and the shoes of the tall man cloaked in dark robes who was staring at the house with the strangest expression on his face.

Lien had been stood out in the garden for twenty minutes now, knowing fully well Lydjah and Jayna weren't supposed to arrive for another five minutes, bouncing excitedly and rechecking everything she had with her about fifteen times a minute.

She had a small purse of money (she'd spent most of her pocket-money on the ticket and had no qualms about letting Jayna pay the rest as she was fairly certain Jayna could spend 100 galleons every day and not have to worry until she was old and grey (yay that rhymed), but she was hoping she could buy at least one souvenir), a waterproof, a set consisting of an obnoxiously orange woolly hat and matching gloves, a 'simple German phrases' book, a packed tea and a small but firm box that Jayna had requested she bring. Lien didn't quite know why Jayna wanted the box but had given up trying to figure out what exactly went on in that girls head. Honestly sometimes it was like the Ravenclaw wasn't all there. Her sister had protested at the hat and gloves, asking why she needed them if it was already hot but Lien had a feeling the match would last long into the night and who knows what German weather was like?

There was a slight crack from behind her and she whizzed around, almost tripping over her own feet in excitement, glad that the tall hedges that framed her garden made it the perfect spot for apparation, to see Jayna and Lydjah looking slightly pale clutching a hand of Alen's each. Within a moment the colour had returned to their faces and they were both stepping forward to give Lien a hug.

"You're ok? We read about the incident in the paper and I know it _said _no-one was hurt but that paper also said Voldemort wasn't back a few years ago so-"

"Jayna we're all fine, calm down." Lien laughed. Jayna coloured slightly but she was smiling.

"Are you ready to go Lien?" Alen cut in, smiling politely. Lydjah sent him a look that told him not to crack one of his jokes right now.

"You got that box?" Jayna asked. Lien passed it over. "Perfect." Jayna nodded with a grin, slipping it into her pocket.

"Yeah I'm ready to go." Lien said slowly, trying to shake out of her confusion over Jayna.

"Alright then." Alen took a crisp packet out of his pocket. "Do you know how portkeys work Lien?"

"Yeah Molly explained it to me. Molly Weasley that is; her dad's-"

"The head of the department of Magical Transportation."

"Yeah. I kind of forgot for a moment there that they're famous."

"Oh Percy not so much. I just see him occasionally in my job. Alright then; put your hands on the packet everyone." There was a slight crinkle as they all placed their hands on the crisp packet and Lien waved enthusiastically to her sister who was watching out of the window before apparently vanishing into thin air. Pearl had seen it before when Professor Vector had apparated from their living-room but it was still unnerving.

Lien fell awkwardly on her arse as she let go of the portkey. Jayna managed to stay on her feet for a second before Lydjah crashed into her ankles and sent them both sprawling. Even Alen was a little unsteady and they all took a moment to just sit down and gather themselves. As soon as Lydjah had untangled her legs from Jayna's the younger Ravenclaw was stood up brandishing her wand with delight casting little green bubbles from her wand and giggling. Lien watched this with a little shock; Jayna was definitely not the haughty ponce she'd met at the train station a year ago but Lien still didn't expect her to be frolicking and laughing happily at bubbles like a three year old.

"I haven't been able to use magic _all _summer!"

"Except at Roxanne's party. Or the various times we've been to Diagon Alley." Lydjah said wryly. Feeling mature, Jayna stuck her tongue out at her, or at least as far as Jayna's tongue would go. It was only then that Lien looked past the grass she was sitting in, following the breeze to where it shimmered slightly and then caught one of many flags sticking up out of tents. The tents themselves were amazing; some were palaces of silk, others four stories high and still others had exotic animals roped to the front. People were everywhere; some in muggle clothing, some in Wizarding robes, shouting to each other, dancing and drinking. The whole atmosphere was filled with friendly jabs to the supporters of the opposing team. Black, crimson and gold screamed for her attention while scarlet and dark yellow paraded past in all directions. Magical fireworks were going up all over the place; spelling out 'Spain sucks!' and 'Germany can-' well Lien didn't really want to read what Germany could do but it was obvious to see tensions were high.

Alen was depositing their portkey in a box guarded by a grumpy looking wizard who was glaring rather fiercely at Jayna.

"No magic allowed outside the muggle repelling barriers miss-" Jayna turned to the wizard with a mock-frown, about to put her wand away as he'd asked, "Oh Miss Blackwood I- I worked with your father Miss, fine man, fine man, such a tragedy, can I _possibly_ help you with anything?" He bowed slightly. Jayna's frown became real as she pocketed her wand, but she immediately straightened out her expression on seeing the older man's slightly scared face, trying to look as friendly as possible.

"Thank you. Directions would be wonderful sir." The wizard, obviously flustered, stuttered and nodded.

"Yes, yes erm if you go down that path in front of us and take the first right- no left then right then another right you should find yourself at the shopping field. I'm sorry you have to go through that field to get to the stadium-"

"Perfect; I can't wait to buy a Spanish scarf." Jayna smiled. "Are you supporting a team?"

"No, no I-" Just then another group of people arrived. With another awkward bow of his head the grumpy wizard scurried away. Jayna sighed, looking at her hands as if they were the root of her problems. Lydjah grabbed one of them and Jayna looked up startled.

"Come on idiot my legs are still numb from you squashing it with your gigantic arse." Jayna swatted at her and held out her other hand for Lien. Lien took it hesitantly, wondering what she was going to do. Immediately Jayna began bounding down the path and dragging them with her in some kind of half-skip half-run leaving a protesting Alen jogging behind them.

They followed the wizard's instructions, right up until the last turn. Bright lights were coming from the other direction and a cacophony of shouting. All three girls immediately stopped. Jayna and Lydjah drew their wands, ignoring Lien's whispered reminder of the no-magic-allowed rule and the three of them headed down the path, though not until Lydjah had made an arrow out of sticks for her father.

Sam was rather regretting not taking Jayna's offer of going with her and Lien. She supposed it probably came down to knowing she could just about stomach James paying for her ticket but letting Jayna would have made her feel like a leech. She knew Harry was famous, like seriously famous. But it was twenty years ago now! Honestly, some of the Quidditch players were just walking without any sort of bombardment in full view across the fields to their places in the changing rooms because every camera was focused on the Potter tent.

Ginny was perhaps the only member of the press actually interviewing the players but she had a small band of reporters trailing her too, from various other magazines.

She hadn't seen Molly or her sister as they'd both been dragged off to help Percy keep the portkeys under control, or at least that's what Al had said. Audrey, she knew, was one of the Aurors on patrol though Sam had a sneaky suspicion that she'd deliberately volunteered to get out of dismantling portkeys.

Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Louis, Dominque, Charlie, George, Angelina, Roxanne and Fred were mostly escaping the brunt of the press, especially Fleur, Victoire, Angelina and Roxanne as their hair colour didn't immediately mark them out as a member of the Weasley family. They'd managed to go to the shopping field and get back without being trampled though George was now being thoroughly told off by his wife (with a silencing charm around them so the press couldn't hear of course) for the bright red lipstick smeared on his cheek, though she seemed to be more amused than angry.

Ron and Hermione had spent most of the day holed up in the tent; playing a singular game of monopoly that Sam had joined in with before she'd been unfairly ganged up upon and made bankrupt (Sam didn't think Rose appreciated her new rainbow dye shampoo. She thought she'd appreciate it even less if Sam told her she only had to wash her hair with normal shampoo for it to disappear). Hugo had spent the day discussing Quidditch with Lily. Sam didn't have the heart to tell them they had no idea what they were talking about.

The game of monopoly was still going with Hermione currently winning, as expected, with Rose in second, Albus third and Ron just about hanging in there so Sam decided to brave outside again.

She squinted her eyes as she stalked out of the tent, focusing on the two messy mounds of dark hair just in front of the bright camera flashes that were threatening to blind her. Harry had agreed to answer an hour's worth of questions that he deemed appropriate at his wife's suggestion; insisting that they go away afterward. This was about three quarters of an hour ago. Initially Sam had gone out with James and Harry but the not-so-subtle questions about her relationship with James had caused her to have what James affectionately called the 'someone is going to have their face kicked in' look and Harry had kindly said that he needed someone to track Ginny down and find out if she was sitting in the VIP box with them or in the press box. The walk around the campsite had calmed her down and besides she needed to give Harry his answer.

Steeling herself she got right up to the fence behind which screaming fans and reporters were yelling and managed to convey to Harry that his wife would unfortunately not be sitting with them before turning to face James with a slight scowl on her face. As always, James was loving the attention. Sam knew what she saw in him as a friend; he was brave, loyal, funny, adventurous, quick with his wand, not afraid to talk to her when she was in a temper, never hypocritical, determined and protective of the weak; something he never viewed Sam as. But Sam could not understand what all the other girls saw in him. Can't they see they'll never be able to compete with his reflection? He has it all; what could _you_ possibly offer him?

Jayna was possibly the only one who'd seen all this and still liked the idiot, though whether that was over or not Sam didn't know, or in all honesty, particularly care because Sam knew the truth. April hadn't or Josie or Sally or Laura or Riley (thank god) or Rephia or Irene (though she'd come close which was he'd broken it off). Girls were either intelligent enough to stay away from him, not interested in a long-term relationship or stupid enough to fall for him. Sam knew James would never let anyone get close enough to him that he'd begin to doubt his reflection, never go out with someone who'd make him feel like he needed to dress-up or make him nervous about a date. And while that sounded shallow on the surface, which it was, Sam knew it was this deep-rooted fear of willingly leaving yourself vulnerable that James, alike many others, possessed.

What Sam didn't know was that it would take someone who had the same vulnerabilities, an entire year's worth of awkwardly dancing round each other and the death of this person for James to realise that he didn't actually have much of a choice when it came to who he gave his heart to.

Of course, currently, almost all members of the eight-person team still possessed the entirety of their hearts. Molly's heart would always be her own. There would never be rips or tears and that was perfectly ok. While James was scared of losing his heart Molly had simply decided she liked hers in her own chest. Lien's heart was large enough to knock down a giant and as of yet still wholly her own. Albus' heart was much the same though his was rather lost which is why it took him awhile to be aware of his own feelings. Sam had lost a good chunk of hers to Lee, but had gained back the equal amount from the Ravenclaw. James was still guarding his with a reflective mirror and Lydjah currently held tens of tiny fragments of other people's hearts no matter how much she tried to be rid of them though had yet to lose any of her own. Jayna's head said that she had only lost a tiny piece, her feelings said the whole thing was gone, but really the only truth was that hers was still broken in half from the loss of her family because even though she'd cello-taped it back together she knew it could never heal until she sewed it into a new shape and she wasn't ready to let them go yet. Scorpius' was half-cloaked in shadow under lock and key with armed guards defending it day and night. The only person who could steal Scorpius' heart was someone who hadn't meant to, and therefore hadn't been detected.

"James?" James turned and caught sight of Sam, giving her their usual high-five. "You done admiring yourself yet?" James rolled his eyes with a good-natured smirk plastered to his face.

"You don't find the fans interesting?"

"Your _father_'s fans?" Sam pointed out. "No." James frowned at her.

"Lover's spat?" A smarmy voice inquired from behind the barrier.

"We're not going out. He's my best friend, not my 'lover', as I believe I explained earlier." Sam said, as cordially as she could.

"And your name dear?"

"Sam Andrews."

"Muggle-born?"

"Does it matter?"

"You go to Hogwarts I presume? A Gryffindor?"

"Yes."

"How long have you been friends with James?"

"Since first year when I broke his nose."

"Broke his nose you say? That sounds like an interesting story."

"It is, and one I'm not telling. You coming James?" James perked up as the attention moved back to him.

"Where?"

"Shopping of course; idiot." James only had time to nod, pouting a little at leaving the eager reporters, before several very familiar voices were calling out across the crowd. Both Gryffindors searched the throng of people but it wasn't until Lien made her way to the very front (small bony elbows came in handy sometimes) of the barrier (she was only just taller than it) that they finally saw her and the rest of her group.

"We saw the camera flashes and heard the shouts and thought there was some kind of duel going on so made our way over." Lydjah was shouting, over the sound of the press and the screaming fans.

"Come this way." Sam yelled back, pointing away from the press. At first a few followed them but quickly made their way back to Harry. James pout grew more pronounced. Once they were out of earshot James gave Lien a hug, asking the same 'are you alright' question she'd heard too many times since the incident in Diagon Alley.

Unfortunately before they could do much more than exchange pleasantries Harry finished his promised press time and informed Sam and James that they had to start making their way to the stadium in order to get to the VIP box. Sam was assured that there were still opportunities to grab some German-supporting face-paint and several figurines of the Quidditch players as well as the binoculars James claimed could rewind and slow down the action as it was happening, but if they went into the shopping field they'd get mobbed. Alen finally turned up then and started shaking Lydjah for being so stupid before he realised the saviour of the Wizarding world was stood three metres in front of him. The two groups dispersed and when Sam saw the tall man in the dark robes and the strange expression she thought nothing of it, dismissing the strange shiver that ran down her back as nothing more than anticipation for the game.


	4. Chapter Four

**AN: Totally within the month again :)**

**My dream-cast for James would be Dylan Schmid, he plays young Baelfire in ****_Once Upon a Time_****. I ****_hate _****the person they got to play him at the end. Not the actual person I'm sure they're lovely but not for that part. I mean no offence if you liked him but no. He looks way too sincere instead of mischievous, his hair style's just wrong and he doesn't look anything like either of his parents, or how his parents were supposed to look. His hair is****_ brown._**

**Dream-cast for Albus Severus Potter?**

Chapter Four  
>Of Reactions to Quidditch Matches and Once In a Lifetime Experiences (Unless Of Course, You're Rich)<p>

Lucy had always been quiet. It wasn't the normal sort of quiet, where one is just shy or afraid of loud noises. The closest she could compare it to was Luna Scamander's quiet sort of dreaminess, but even she was capable of shouting if needs be. Lucy didn't speak very often, didn't engage. Molly had learnt how to read her sister without words but it had taken a long while.

Audrey was pretty good at it and Percy could even draw out a smile if he tried but Molly was the only one who heard Lucy's voice, when she, very rarely, chose to speak. When she did speak it was usually only a single word, and one that made no sense to anyone except her but Molly treasured every one of them. Everyone in their family knew she was a bit different, and even James had learnt not to tease her for it, but no-one understood her. Not that Lucy would care if they did tease for it because she wasn't tuned in enough to realise that's what they were doing. She spoke through touch mostly; tapping her father's elbow when she was hungry, patting Molly's hair when her older sister was upset, holding her mother's hand whenever she was close enough.

Lucy had a different way of looking at things, sideways and backwards and flipped over to how everyone else did. Molly thought it was refreshing. She hoped when the younger girl was preparing to go to Hogwarts this time next year, others would see it too. Especially as Molly would be busy trying not to die every time they completed one of those task things.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by the girl herself. Lucy had tripped over but was refusing her father's help to get up as Percy tried desperately to be a good father while shouting angrily at a man who was attempting to shoot fireworks out of his wand in full view of the muggle cottage next-door. Molly pushed her dad lightly in the direction of the offender and waited patiently for Lucy to get up by herself.

"You ok to carry on collecting used portkeys?" Lucy's response was to take the box that was full of the strangest collection of objects from a rubber duck to an alarm clock, gently out of Molly's hands and place it on the floor before ambling the few paces to pick up an old trainer. Molly smiled.

Percy put his arm round her shoulders when she reached him, having sent off the fireworks man with a severe reprimand and made sure the muggle's curtains were still firmly closed. "Thanks Princess." Molly leaned her head on his shoulder. She had a bit of a rocky relationship with her dad; they didn't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things; she thought he was boring and he thought she was reckless (Molly didn't want to know what he thought of James), but whatever else her dad was, he was hard-working, and that included towards his family too. He always _tried_ to make everything the best it could be, even if try was the operative word, and Molly did love him for it. "Wish your mum was here; she's much scarier than me." Molly laughed in agreement.

Percy had met Audrey through work, and that's usually all he said on the topic. Audrey however, loved to tell the tale; how she'd got awfully lost when trying to report for Auror training and had wandered into his department just in time to hear Percy swearing like a sailor after accidentally stapling himself while trying to clip some documents together. She'd grabbed him a coffee (for no other reason than he looked like he needed one), he'd shown her the way to the Auror department and it had taken him three weeks and a rather painful meeting of his face to the floor after tripping over his desk-chair for him to realise the coffee cup he'd thrown in the bin by his desk had her number on it.

Lucy grabbed Percy's hand and pointed shyly at the full box of used portkeys. "Is that all of them?" He asked, looking ecstatic. She patted his hand once. Percy took this to be affirmative. He kissed the top of her head. "Thank you." Lucy didn't respond, as was usual. "Alright; we're done here then. Better get going if we want to go shopping." With a smile he pulled out two galleons and handed one to each girl.

"Thank you!" Molly squealed, wrapping her arms round his waist and then grabbing Lucy's free hand. Percy chuckled and followed after his two daughters, only a slight flash of worry showing on his face as he regarded Lucy's apathetic expression.

Jayna supposed that every time she did something that she'd done before with her family she would get this strange ache in her chest. She was carrying the image of Aleron cramming his Omnioculars to his eyes in her heart, gripping Dev's tiny hand in her own, feeling her father's warm arm around her shoulders and her mother's uncustomary giggles ringing in her ears as if they were right there next to her. Now, however, she was able to make new memories on top of them without trying to drown them out.

She did not want to think about her family right then, and so she thought about her friends instead. Lien's eyes couldn't get any wider. The poor girl was whipping her head backwards and forwards desperately trying to see everything in the shopping field. Jayna liked to think she'd grown up a bit since she first met Lien; she now found the muggleborn's wild-eyed excitement endearing instead of a mark of her ignorance.

Not that Lydjah was any better. Lydjah had no interest in the sport itself but the sheer atmosphere of the Quidditch World Cup was amazing-

Jayna's thoughts were quite rudely interrupted as a ginger headed youth emerged from the crowd and smashed his lips against Lydjah's. Lien and Jayna stood, staring in stunned disbelief at the couple. Alen's polite cough caused Lydjah to remember who she was with and she quickly moved back a pace, going paler in her embarrassment instead of blushing like most people.

"Erm Fred this is my dad and my friends Lien Irby and Jayna Blackwood." Fred ran a hand through his shaggy mop of hair and grinned. Jayna was quite impressed by this grin; if she'd come along and snogged say, James, and then realised Harry was standing right behind him she'd be mortified. "Guys; Fred Weasley."

"I remember; I saw you guys at Roxanne's party." Fred said to Jayna and Lien. "Great to meet you…?"

"Alen."

"Indeed." He smiled again before turning back to Lydjah. "Sorry I could only get away for a moment; we have to get to our seats. See you Saturday?"

"Yeah." Fred kissed her quickly and then dived back into the crowd. Jayna allowed her one moment of happy befuddlement before whacking her on the arm. "Ow!"

"_That _was for lying to me! 'I'm going to visit an old muggle friend' my arse! That's who you've been going to see every week?!" Lydjah managed a sheepish look. Alen raised his eyebrows at his daughter and she averted her gaze.

"Lydjah-"

"Don't want to have this conversation with you right now Alen." Lydjah interrupted, with a pleading expression on her face. Alen narrowed his eyes at being called by his first name but relented. Lydjah hoped he would forget by the time they got home. Jayna decided that helping her friend now would probably put her in a better mood for talking about Fred later, so immediately suggested that Alen go to buy them some drinks and meet them at the end gate of the shopping field while they did some 'long and very girly' shopping. Alen agreed, not looking the slightest bit fooled but wanting to get a pint of Dragon Scale for himself.

Jayna immediately rushed over to the nearest sales wizard who was carrying a tray full of omnioculars. "Fifteen galleons! Bargain price! Fifteen galleons!"

"We are not in an economic crisis anymore mate. Fifteen galleons is ridiculous." Lydjah and Lien exchanged shocked looks at Jayna's less-than-scarily-polite attitude. The sales wizard, a middle-aged man with a kind-enough smile and slightly greying blonde hair, seemed shocked as well before he looked up and registered Jayna's face.

"Miss Jayna Blackwood! I haven't seen ya in yonks!"

"A year is hardly 'yonks' Patrick. And this is the last place I would have looked for you. I thought you hated Quidditch!" Patrick pulled a face, his dusty-blue eyes watering slightly though Lydjah got the impression it was more to do with faulty tear ducts than any sort of emotion.

"That's true enough lass but a man's gotta find work where he can."

"Gardening to selling omnioculars is a bit of a difference though." Jayna pointed out. Patrick shrugged. "How's Mrs Bagby? And the kids?"

"Tamsin's as good as ever. Misses baking you and your siblings pies awfully. And our Lizzie's starting Hogwarts in September." Mr Bagby said proudly. Jayna gasped.

"No! She's grown up so fast!"

"So have you." Patrick sighed, looking sadly at her. Jayna glanced away uncomfortably, trying to stop the tears that were pricking her eyelids. "I'm very sorry about your family Miss Jayna."

"I'm sorry you lost your job." She returned. "Did you get your last set of wages?"

"Nah, but it don't matter now." Jayna frowned.

"After all that work you put into our gardens Patrick, please let me pay you-"

"No." Jayna sighed.

"Fine. At least let me buy three sets of these omnioculars, at your ridiculous price." Patrick tried to shake his head but Jayna had already taken the money out of her pocket and snatched three pairs in return. She passed one to each of her friends. "I've got to go now but you're always welcome to owl me if you need anything yeah?" Mr Bagby nodded, looking a little teary himself and apparated away to a different part of the field before he could lose his composure. Lydjah tried to pay Jayna back but she shrugged it off, saying Lydjah could buy the next thing. Lydjah thought this was because Jayna knew they weren't going to be buying anything that was more expensive than fifteen galleons, but she agreed anyway.

Jayna looked apologetically at her friends. "Sorry guys; that was my family's gardener Patrick Bagby. I had to say hello."

"That's alright." Lien smiled.

"I'd completely forgotten about the household staff; I hope they're all ok."

"How many 'household staff' did you have?!" Asked Lydjah incredulously.

"Well my grandpa didn't like house-elves, less to do with the moral behind it and more because he was distrustful and paranoid about them for some reason, so we had a couple of cooks; Zoe Accrington and Malcolm Baddock, a gardener; Patrick Bagby, three maids; Tracey Davis and Flora and Hestia Carrow; their family name really went down in power after the end of the war though I don't see how it was their fault; they were perfectly alright to me, and a butler; Curtis Evercreech."

"Oh so not much then."

"My mum didn't want nannies for us. I mean, she didn't have to work but she did but she still thought we should be brought up by our family instead of someone different."

"Your mum worked?"

"Yeah she was on the Wizengamot."

"No way!"

"What's the 'Wizengamot'?" Lien asked sheepishly.

"It's the wizarding high court of law… Basically."

"Oh."

"Most of the rest of my family didn't though. My grandparents and my father didn't though my grandpa I think did voluntary research for the Ministry from time to time. My Uncle Anton was an architect; he helped redesign the street of Diagon Alley after it got destroyed in the war. And my Auntie Jozlyn owned the Leaky Cauldron after Madam Longbottom went to become the matron. Everyone else just lived off their old money." Lydjah just shook her head, marvelling at the difference of their childhoods.

"When did your family move to England then?" Lien asked, assuming, correctly, that they had to have lived for at least a little while for Jayna's mother to have been allowed into the high court for the whole of British wizards.

"Must have been a couple of years after the war; the year my parents got married… Two years before Cara so… Seventeen years ago?" Lien nodded.

"Ooh what do they do?" Lien asked, pointing to another sales person's wares. Violet and yellow rosettes clashed horribly in a tray hung round the sales witch's neck. On the violet rosettes there was a picture of an Erkling (Lien would later be informed they were native to the Black Forest of Germany) and on the yellow was, to her horror, a very familiar creature.

"Is that-"

"That horrible creature that almost killed Potter a few months ago?"

"Quintaped." Lydjah confirmed, wrinkling her nose. Jayna's support for the Spanish Quidditch team weakened slightly. All the rosettes were shouting but Lien couldn't make sense of the words.

"Why is Germany violet?" Lydjah asked, confused. Jayna shrugged.

"That's the colour of their player's robes. I think they're shouting the different players' names."

"Jägers; Adelheid Zilberschlag, Gebbert Tschida und Karsten Voss, Treibers; Carola Xylander und Eleonora Xylander, Hüter; Ignatz Rothbauer und Sucher; Malte Protz!" The violet rosette screamed in agreement.

"What?" Lien asked, as they stood in the queue for the rosettes.

"It must have been Chasers first because there are three of them, then Beaters because there are two of those, then Keeper? Because the last one sounded like Seeker."

"Right."

"Xylander? Isn't that a relation of Owen's?" Jayna asked.

"Who's Owen?" Lydjah responded.

"Owen Xylander, Gryffindor in our year. His twin older brothers are the Beaters for Hufflepuff."

"Oh _that_ Owen. I thought he was Dutch, not German."

"They're very close countries."

"True. You should ask James."

"Potter? Huh yeah."

"¡Cazadores; Octavia Núñez, Quim Loyola y Salud Juárez, Golpeadores; Udane Huerta y Wilfredo Franco, Guardián; Yadira Cuevas y Buscador; Bakar Azarola!" The yellow rosette roared back.

"I understood that!" Jayna and Lydjah shouted excitedly at the same time, and then the three of them broke down into giggles. So much so, that, by the time they got to the front of the queue, they were still in hysterics, and their order took a lot longer than necessary. True to her word, Lydjah bought all three of their one Galleon (ein Galleonen) rosettes, though it had taken a while as none of them spoke a lick of German past 'hallo'. Jayna and Lydjah were both wearing yellow, whereas Lien had controversially gone with violet. Lydjah was planning on evening it up by buying a German scarf, but she thought the Spanish rosette sounded and looked nicer.

None of them bought a flag when they reached that store as the horrible cacophony of national anthems that played whenever the flag caught the slightest breeze was awful, though all three bought scarfs. Jayna ignored Lydjah's ribbing that she'd only bought the Spanish scarf because it was in Gryffindor colours; yellow with red outlining it, but Lydjah wouldn't let it go, no matter how many times Jayna haughtily explained Gryffindor's colours were more gold and scarlet.

Jayna was quite enamoured with the Spanish Chaser Quim Loyola and bought a figurine of him that walked around on her palm and scowled prettily at everything it saw. Lien said he looked permanently grumpy but Jayna thought it was more dark and brooding. Either way they all agreed his eyebrow game was on point. Lydjah bought both Carola and Eleonora Xylander as she couldn't decide which one of the twins to get.

Before they could get out of his sight again Alen located them at the edge of the field and insisted that they get going though Lydjah personally thought he was trying to hide something in the shopping bag that was poking out of is magically large pockets.

Albus loved his family to pieces.

Sam's family was small, and Sam never mentioned her dad. Albus didn't know if he was dead, or had left them, or Sam just didn't like him but something had happened there. She seemed close to her sister though, and Albus knew she was coming up to Hogwarts this year.

Lydjah's family was pretty close from what he had gathered, especially with her being the only child, but there was the whole issue of her mother not knowing what her daughter and her husband were, plus the whole new dynamic adopting Jayna had thrown in.

Jayna's family seemed pretty sketchy before, and now they were all dead except for that I-can't-make-up-my-mind sister of hers.

Lien's had the same problem as Lydjah's in the sense that although they were aware that Lien was a witch, they could never understand it properly, and Lien would always be pulled between two worlds.

Scorpius' family was on the sketchy side of things too. Scorpius _seemed_ fine with Lien and Albus had never heard him say anything that was racially motivated to anyone, but there was a definite private side to Scorpius and Albus hadn't been entirely honest when he said what he'd seen in Scorpius' sketchbook. There was a drawing of their homework group though the table and the library around it looked normal each of the people sat at the table were… Strange to say the least. Scorpius had drawn it from the perspective of where he usually sat, staring at everyone else. Roxanne was cut in half in her chair, straight down the middle so that blood was spurting out and drowning the rest of the chair in hot red liquid. Molly had her throat slit, and was staring out into nothing, somehow remaining upright in her chair. Lien was covered head to toe in a thick mud like substance but underneath she was glowing bright white. Scorpius had drawn Albus reading a book, and the angle was such that you could see both half of Albus' face and the pages of the book. Albus' face looked perfectly normal but the book pages were a mirror, and in their reflection Albus had no head, and his neck was bleeding freely over his beheaded corpse. And then there was Rose. Her red hair had turned into fountains of blood and her limps were flung across the arms of the chair, as if she was being crucified. She was raised above the seat slightly, her bloodied face turned up towards the sky, but her eyes were closed. At the bottom of the page, in perfect calligraphy, the picture was named '_Three Bloods_'. The image was so haunting that it refused to leave Albus' head. And if that was what _Scorpius_ was doing… Albus didn't even want to think about the rest of his family.

He didn't think his family was _better _in some way, but he was oh so very, very glad that he had his family and not anyone else's. He loved all his cousins and aunties and uncles and siblings and of course his parents. Sure; he didn't get on so well with James most of the time but that was over petty things, and if he found Louis' air of superiority annoying so what? Albus knew he could count on his family; always.

Bill and Charlie were chatting with Percy, who'd arrived to the VIP box a few minutes ago, most probably about the last few people to arrive via portkey that Percy had to sort out. The British Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was chatting quite happily to his dad, and Albus had to keep reminding himself that they were friends. It had only been in recent years that Albus realised having the Minister for Magic round for tea every month wasn't usual and since coming to Hogwarts he'd tried very hard not to drop names. He'd read the article Rita Skeeter had done when they'd come to the last Quidditch World Cup and had found it more amusing than insulting, especially the part where his mum had hexed her. He wished his mum was with them here but Albus knew she loved reporting the Quidditch World Cup almost as much as she loved playing the sport. Albus was hoping next summer that he and James could invite their little group of friends back to his for another adult vs kids match; they were even again as the adults had won the last one by a mile.

On his right Hermione was attempting to talk to Angelina but the seasoned Quidditch player was too intent on the pitch to respond in much more than monosyllables. As ever, Hermione was refusing to support either team, and Albus noted with a bemused smile that she already had her wand out; just in case. Ron, Louis, Hugo, Dominque and George were all talking in hushed voices as they listened to the rundown of how Germany and Spain had made it to the final; well Ron, Louis and Dominque were listening to George's translation of the German as he was the only one who spoke it. Albus had a feeling George was making most of it up as Ron looked rather confused at his brother's retelling.

Fleur was chatting with Victoire, both looking a little tearful. After the match Victoire was going off with Teddy, and not coming back till Christmas. Teddy, fearing Bill would try (again) to convince (threaten) him into staying, had decided to skip out of the Quidditch World Cup and visit his grandmother before he left instead. As the Quidditch World Cup had been pushed back so far Neville and Hannah Longbottom had decided it would be best for them not to go in order to set up at school properly, and Luna and Rolf were currently back-packing around the alps; Albus had quite lost track of which magical creature they were trying to find now. Unfortunately for the magical newspapers, this meant the 2018 Quidditch World Cup would not include a 'Dumbledore's Army Reunion' like the last one. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander were there however as they were being looked after by Lorcan's godparents; Harry, Ron and Hermione. They'd already been pulled into James' game of _Truce _but had escaped injury by offering truce straight after they'd poured James' blackcurrant-squash-filled bottle over his head.

The Spanish Minister for Magic was chatting amicably to the German one though Albus thought he could hear slightly offensive 'accidental' insults as he tried to translate his Spanish into German. The current Queen of Spain; Leonor, was also there as she was a muggleborn witch. It was very rare she got a chance to go to an all magic event and the muggle newspapers were disappointed when they couldn't find photographs of Queen Leonor's latest holiday. She was entertaining the Scamander twins whom Albus didn't think quite grasped that she was royalty, though if they had he doubted they'd treat her any differently, by producing little red, yellow and black fire sprites that danced round their hands from her wand. The fire didn't seem to be painful to touch.

As for Albus, he was sat with Rose, listening to her talk about how excited she was for their second year of school. Albus didn't see it himself; obviously he was excited to go back to Hogwarts but second year seemed much the same as first, but with harder homework. James had been gloating about all the new subjects he was taking all summer, and Albus was very disappointed to find out they only studied magical theory for the first year unless you took it as an option. Of course, his favourite subject was still Charms, but Magical Theory had been a close second.

Rose was cut off as James let out an almighty shriek, causing Sam next to him to fall into hysterics. "IT'S STARTING!" Immediately everyone's attention (barring Lorcan who was quite content with his fire sprites) turned to the pitch. The game was on.

James spent most of the first few minutes of the match alternating between embarrassment over his overly loud shout and terror that they were going to bring out a huge group of Quintapeds at any moment. Fortunately, as the Quintapeds were now more legend than fact (though the slight fracture of his tailbone that occasionally still twinged was inclined to disagree) the real thing had been replaced with illusions. He was unprepared for the German Erklings after his unfounded terror over the not-very-realistic Quintapeds (they didn't even seem mildly aggressive) and so when they started cackling in that horrible entrancing way he had to be grabbed by the scruff of his neck so he didn't try to wander over the side of the box. Harry explained that they were only entrancing to children, but James didn't see the problem till he mentioned that they liked to eat human flesh. It was only after one of them shot a dart (thankfully missing Spanish Chaser Salud Juárez, though to be fair she had been taunting it by flying lazy circles above its head) that they were hauled off again. The match started with some confusion but it was on both sides, so there were no disadvantages.

James jammed his omnioculars to his eyes, knowing Sam was doing the same next to him. Within three minutes it was clear that the German Beaters; the Xylander twins (James was fully planning on killing Owen when he got back to school for not mentioning this), were going to thrash their counter-parts. Quim Loyola had barely touched the Quaffle when a Bludger slammed into his stomach. One of the Xylanders (they were identical; James had no idea which was which) had used a wicked Bludger Backbeat, and Wilfredo Franco was left completely confused as to where the aggressive ball had gone.

With confusion still reigning, Adelheid Zilberschlag and Karsten Voss performed a great rendition of the Porskoff Play befuddling their only real remaining opposition; Yadira Cuevas, and scoring ten points.

Thankfully, by the time the Quaffle got thrown out again the Spanish had worked themselves out, and without using any particular tactics scored the next two goals, though their third attempt was blocked by Ignatz Rothbauer, bringing the score to 10-20.

The next few minutes were fast and furious, but with no goals scored on either side. James found himself wishing that Teddy was here; him breaking Victoire's nose was quite possibly the funniest part of his day in the last Quidditch World Cup.

James had to watch the playback on his omnioculars in order to understand the next few seconds. Octavia Núñez aimed a punch towards Gebbert Tschida. He obviously ducked out of the way, and it seemed that, that had been what Octavia was hoping for. In less than a second she was stood on her broom performing the Dionysus Dive. It was only then that Rothbauer realised that the punch had actually been a Transylvanian Tackle and that Núñez had scored a goal. Unfortunately for Núñez, neither of her other chasers had also realised this, and it was only Seeker; Bakar Azarola's quick-thinking that stopped her from a very messy death after she'd leaped off her broom during the dive.

James leapt to his feet as he heard the confused roaring all around him.

"What's happened?" He yelled at Sam.

"Malte Protz caught the snitch! Germany's won!"

"What?!"

"Azarola was too busy catching Núñez and Protz saw the snitch!" Then James was roaring too, yelling as Sam wrestled him to the floor. Harry pulled them off each other, a grin on all three of their faces, and punched them both lightly in the arm. Up at the front George was singing a very odd song that went something along the lines of "Germany, Germany, I think it's called Deutschland, sucks to the Spanish, Germany rules!" Núñez was crying while her teammates reassured her and the Germans did victory laps around the pitch. When James went to the edge of the box he could see the back of Scorpius' head in the second VIP box, with his sharp-featured father and beautiful mother, and, if he really craned his neck, he thought he spotted Lien stood on an enlarged box, clapping as though Christmas had come early though even with her box James doubted she could see from where she was stood at the back of the crowd.

The man with the strange expression was nowhere to be found.


End file.
